Manuscripts16th century

Manuscript of the Tuhfat al-Ahrar (The Gift to the Noble) by Jami

1540-1541

Description

The cover of this manuscript is dark brown leather with embossed stamped center- and corner-pieces, with flowers painted in various colors on a gold ground. The inside cover is a glossy marbled paper pasted onto cardboard, framed and etched with a fine gold tooling. The support of the text panels is well-burnished paper, sprinkled with finely grained gold and ruled in two gold and one blue lines. The text is written in a beautiful nastaʿlīq script in Herat in H. 947/1540-41 by the scribe and illuminator Sultan Husayn ibn Jamshid and arranged in 12 lines and two columns to a page. It is punctuated with diversely illuminated headings carrying arabesque vines and floral motifs in various colors. The double-page frontispiece is exquisitely illuminated with very fine arabesque and palmette patterns in gold and deep lapis blue. The frontispiece is mounted on plain dull red paper, and the rest of the folios have marbled paper margins, except for the final folio (f. 86r, the colophon page). The visually riveting design of the marbled margins consists of combed patterns in a wide spectrum of colors.

Classification

Manuscripts

Medium

Ink, colors, and gold on gold-sprinkled paper; marbled paper margins Brown leather binding, stamped, gilt, and painted

Period

Safavid period

Century

16th century

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Department

Department of Islamic & Later Indian Art

Dimensions

Cover: 22.3 × 14.0 cm (8 7/8 x 5 ½ in.) Folio: 22.0 × 14.0 cm (8 5/8 x 5 ½ in.) Text panel: 9.0 – 7.5 × 13.0 – 12.8 cm (5 – 5 1/8 x 3 – 3 3/16 in.)

Provenance

The Edwin Binney, 3rd Collection, California (by 1986 - 2016), bequest; to the Harvard Art Museums, 2019. NOTE: Stored at the San Diego Museum of Art from some time before 1986 until 1991, then at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from 1991-2011.